By John Mair in London
They call it the ‘Guyana Bench’ at Grantley Adams airport in Barbados – it’s where the Guyanese are put to wait entry whilst en route to their homeland to and from the UK. Now that indignity will be no more thanks to the restoration of a direct air bridge, after a thirty-year gap, from London to Georgetown later this year.
November 20th sees the start of a weekly service to Guyana and Trinidad from Gatwick airport operated by Zoom Airlines and Club Caribee. It is masterminded by UK Guyanese Robert Sarran. That service was launched with much pizzazz at the Guyana High Commis-sion in London last night.
The Boeing 737 flights will leave Gatwick at 09.30 in the morning, direct to Georgetown, arriving that afternoon, where the Guyanese passengers will disembark, the ones returning to London embark, then to Trinidad for refuelling and a fresh set of Trinidadian passengers will embark and disembark before returning to London for the next morning. Flights will operate weekly on Thursdays and operated by Canada based Zoom airlines sub contracted by Club Caribbee. Prices start at six hundred pounds sterling return.
I caught up with Robert, the brains behind the new scheme just prior to the launch
Where did the idea of regular weekly flights to Guyana from London come from?
Well, the idea has always been there, we were working with Peter Iland from BWIA on a once a week solution but unfortunately he died and so did any chance of BWIA performing such a flight.
How did you go about setting it up and how difficult was that?
The expression jumping through hoops is an expression that comes to mind when I think of what we have had to do to get this far.
The first thing we did was prove that it was viable, so we dug up all the information on arrival numbers both to Guyana and Trinidad and sifted through them carefully extracting what we needed. Also looking at the potential competition and their possible reaction. The biggest stumbling block was getting any of the UK airlines to play ball, prior to Zoom taking on the project. Only one other UK carrier was interested, all the others were fully committed or dis-interested, it took us from October 2007 until February 2008 to find a suitable carrier and we were very lucky to find Zoom who are a superb fit. Once we got the flight we needed the approval of the CAA (the UK Civil Aviation Authority) which seemed to take ages, then the bank, then our insurers….
Was it difficult? I haven’t a clue we just kept at it day by day and slowly it all came together. Hard work? oh yes! many late nights, long days and quite a few days of despair waiting for the CAA to give their consent, and the bank to agree new facilities…
What about guarantees and bonds?
We sought the CAA’s consent very early in the programme. Every passenger booked is covered under the Air Tour Operators Licence (ATOL) regulations as such should there be a failure everyone will get their money back or be repatriated as required. Our ATOL number is 3784 and we have the necessary permissions, consent and licence to sell this flight, so as such everyone making a booking is protected.
We are members of ABTA (the Association of British Travel Agents) too, to maintain membership one has to show financial credibility among other things. Any travel concern who are members of ABTA and hold an ATOL licence tend to be companies who have good trading records, are accountable to trade bodies are financially fit and have a set of standards that they can be held accountable to.
What is your dream for the future of the service?
Nothing too outlandish, for me twice a week doing the London/ Guyana/Trinidad/London triangle would be quite enough.
Watch this airspace from November and beyond.
